As the smoke barrier created by Watson started to blur, things took a turn for the weird.
Watson was the first to act up.
[ The ‘Eye’ has arrived. ]
[ Huh? How come? What purpose does that ‘Eye’ have here?]
[ Hiik! I don’t like the ‘Eye,’ it’s scaaaryyy! ]
Watson’s words hung in the air for a moment before the lights shut themselves off.
The sound of tiny footsteps echoed around us, followed by a burst of bright, golden light piercing through the darkness.
In the clearing, countless golden eyes glowed ominously.
The Gray Reaper had arrived, leading a pack of Golden Reapers who bounced around all over the place.
The Gray Reaper surveyed the scene with a bored look. Clearly, it didn’t care much about the chaos unfolding. But the Golden Reapers? Oh, they were another story entirely.
Sheer rage and pure, intense anger rolled off them in waves, all directed at the director and researchers.
The director, probably sensing the danger as well, barked an urgent order, “Researchers! Buy me some time!”
The Golden Reapers charged, their faces twisted with fury, as the director scrambled to command his team.
While he was still in the middle of barking his orders, all of a sudden the director made a break for the client’s younger brother, clutching a familiar Object in his hands.
Isn’t that the Cane?!
Shit! He was planning to take the client’s brother away and give us the slip using the cane.
I turned to Junior No. 1. “Stop him!”
She didn’t need to be told twice. Hammer in hand, she sprinted off at top speed.
She blitzed through the clearing, the sheer force tearing the concrete, and zeroed in on the director. But, as expected, the distance was too much to cover in an instant.
The director’s laughter rang out, full of confidence. He watched the Golden Reapers and Junior No. 1 charging towards him, a smug look on his face.
With a flourish, he placed a hand on the client’s brother, and with a triumphant expression, struck the ground with his cane.
As soon as I arrived at the clearing where the Ghost Cat was crying, I saw the director and the researchers. Oh, and there was the detective and the Ghost Cat, too!
The director, who I hadn’t seen in forever, looked like a totally different person. He was so full of malice toward humanity that anyone who saw him would be breathless with shock. Wasn’t he supposed to be an Object that conducted research for the sake of humanity?
The director, who usually had a chill vibe, was all serious now. Should I think of him as a different person altogether?
As the Golden Reaper charged, and the director started to run, I spotted something familiar—the cane the detective used to carry. That Object allowed you to teleport, right?
The moment I saw the cane, I rushed toward the director in phantom form. I couldn’t let such a dangerous Object escape.
“Hahahaha!” he laughed arrogantly. But I wasn’t having any of that. I cut off the director’s right hand just as he slammed the cane to the floor.
“Aaaahhh!” he screamed, stepping back and clutching his bleeding hand. I looked at his killing condition.
[ Making his wish come true. ]
It was another tricky one. Still, I couldn’t ignore how harmful that Object was to humans.
While I was fretting, the Golden Reapers mercilessly phased through the fleeing director.
He ended up looking like he’d been hit by a high-caliber rifle, whith holes all over his body. He collapsed, bleeding everywhere.
“I… I… For humanity!” he gasped. It was hilarious, really. An Object with nothing but malice toward humanity claiming to act for humanity’s sake.
The Golden Reapers surrounded the bleeding, dying director, glaring at him. The look on their face practically screamed something like: ‘We’ll kill you even if you’re resurrected!’
To the Golden Reapers, who were huge fans of humanity, the director must have seemed like their ultimate enemy.
The director was dead.
What he left behind were two Objects: a strangely glowing sphere and the staff I’d traded with him. I knew he had some other Objects, but they were nowhere to be seen.
The Gray Reaper didn’t seem to care about the Objects left behind by the director. So, I hung the staff on my belt and checked out the strange sphere with my trusty monocle.
[ Heals all nearby humans ]
Now, that was a powerful little Object. Healing abilities? Sounds too good to be true, right? There must be some side effects.
Meanwhile, the battle between the researchers and the Golden Reaper was wrapping up. It was not much of a battle, really—a total one-sided beatdown.
By the time the dust settled, most of the Golden Reapers had vanished. The ones left clung to the client’s younger brother, looking at him as if it was their first time seeing a living human. Though I didn’t know why, they seemed to be incredibly relieved.
Once again, the Gray Reaper had saved the day. At this point, wasn’t it actually a Gray Guardian Deity instead? At least to me, it was clearly a goddess of luck.
My goddess looked around with that trademark indifferent expression. Then Junior No. 1 came rushing over.
“Reapeeeerr!” she yelled. As soon as she saw that the director was down, she rushed toward it and hugged the Gray Reaper, rubbing her cheeks against it affectionately.
Junior No. 1 was more enthusiastic than ever. Isn’t she scared?
Even I, who knew that Gray Reaper was helpful, wasn’t about to get all cuddly with it. What if it got in a bad mood and decided to blow my head off?
The client, on the other hand, was about to run to her brother but hesitated, eyeing the Gray Reaper and its posse of Golden Reapers.
Well, it’s understandable. That’s how one’s reaction should be. Normal.
And then there was Junior No. 2…
“Awawawa! Woah, woah! So soft! Sho tiny! Sho cuteee” she exclaimed, seemingly having the time of her life with a Golden Reaper In each hand.
Nope! Not normal at all.
Hah… Sigh, hoping to ease my headache, I lit up my pipe.
The dangerous director and his band of researchers were attacked by the Golden Reaper and ended up looking like Swiss cheese. But since his destruction conditions hadn’t been met, he’d resurrect soon enough.
Well, judging by the Golden Reapers’ current mood, though, they’d just kill him again as soon as he popped back up.
“Waaah, Reaper!! It’s been a while!”
As soon as the director disappeared, the junior of the detective started clinging to me.
“Thank you for coming to save us! Hihi!”
She clung to me, rubbing my arms, legs, and cheeks, like we hadn’t seen each other in forever. Was she always this clingy? Maybe she was just super stressed from fighting the director. She continued to cling to me nonstop, and it was quite annoying now.
Hmph, I am not a child!
I bit her hand to get her to stop kneading my cheeks, but she actually liked it even more.
“Heek! The Reaper bit me!”
Huh? Why did she become happier?
Shaking her off using my phantom form, I went to the Object who brought me here.
A Ghost Cat with a hoarse voice walked towards me. Hehe, it must have been shouting a lot to sound that hoarse.
Hmm, Ohh~ So it was fun? Not dangerous at all?
The cat in my arms puffed its chest out, bragging.
You just called me because you thought I was bored? Okay, Okay
The Ghost Cat was a braggart like always.
It started telling me all about its exciting experiences during this adventure.
A ruin filled with hellfire rising from the abyss, fire-spewing demon frogs, and their leader—a giant frog the size of a house.
Even though I knew how it loved to dramatize and knew almost all the things it had gone through, it was still a fun and interesting story.
Yup, yup. That’s amazing.
I said, holding that cat and petting it.
As I petted the cute cat, I felt the junior’s gaze on me. She was looking at me with an extremely envious expression.
Grabbing her hand I made her sit on the floor. Then I flopped onto her lap, lifted her hand, and placed it on my head.
If she’s that jealous, she can pet me too.
I leaned against her soft body and enjoyed the strokes. Strangely, her breathing started to sound heavy as she rubbed my head.
Hmm, she should be fine, right?
Late at night in the Sehee Research Institute, I was busy organizing photos of the Reaper in the break room.
< Reaper sleeping cutely in its containment room after the Central Research Institute incident. >
< Reaper caught on a security camera on the day the Yellow Detective visited. >
< Golden Reapers nibbling on a cake. >
< Reaper grabbing one of the blue lizard’s legs and lifting it up to stop it from playing the piano. >
< Reaper excitedly riding a tricycle. >
< Reaper with its cheek pressed against the glass wall of a containment room, desperately trying to get a look at the skull spider. >
There were so many cute moments captured on the security cameras. But my absolute favorite? The photo of the Reaper holding onto one of the legs of the blue lizard, lifting it up to stop it from playing the piano.
Hehe, Sehee unnie had sent me that one, and it doubled Reaper’s cuteness factor!
As I flipped through the Reaper’s pictures, suddenly, I started missing the real Reaper. Sure, we had a Golden Reaper in the institute, but I wanted to see the original one…
“It’s already this late, huh…?”
I sighed, stretching my arms over my head. For some reason, though, I had this unshakable feeling that I’d get to see the Reaper tomorrow.
Oh, I really, really hope it was true!